Fluoride is now approved as a food supplement

Fluoride is now approved as a food supplement
Monday, February 9, 2009

While the manufacturers of vitamin and herbal preparations under the guise of consumer protection in the day more difficult, their products on the market that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) last week approved the toxic sodium fluoride to be added in Europe produced and marketed food.

The cleaning teeth with fluoride-containing toothpaste is bad enough, but adding this substance to food, without any control over the amount an individual receives, is totally irresponsible, said an angry spokesman for the Alliance for Natural Health, a group which defend the interests of consumers.

Fluoride is not an essential nutrient, and is known already in very low concentrations to be toxic. Acceptance as a dietary supplement is bizarre and criminal.

ORIGINAL POST

Tegenbericht.wordpress.com

Another view of the world
Fluoride is now approved as a food supplement

“How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.”

Re: Fluoride is now approved as a food supplement

According to an article in Nutraingredients.com, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) expressed a positive opinion regarding calcium fluoride as a source of fluoride in food supplements. That same day, another fluoride compound was approved - sodium monofluorophosphate - but this one was not mentioned in the Nutraingredients report.

These opinions appear to be in stark contrast with the over-cautious evaluation of vital nutrients (vitamins and minerals) in progress. A scientific dossier proving the safety of those nutrient sources is required before EFSA will consent to their use in supplements, and limiting dosages are being considered to make sure there is not a shadow of a possibility of an 'adverse effect'.

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) published a critical review of the EFSA opinion under the title EFSA—are you trying to poison us? which was subsequently taken up by Nutraingredients.

EFSA felt moved to defend their position in another article on the Nutraingredients site: EFSA defends independence against ‘toxic toothpaste’ attack

Of the particular sodium monofluorophosphate opinion, the EFSA spokesperson observed, by way of clarification: “The opinion to which you refer was an evaluation of the safety of sodium monofluorophosphate added for nutritional purposes as a source of fluoride in food supplements and on bioavailability of fluoride from this source. The safety of fluoride itself was outside the remit of the Panel.”

Yet, fluoride is NOT an essential nutrient and has known toxicity at very low dosages. Both these facts should act as red flags, impeding the approval of fluoride compounds in nutritional supplements.

Robert Pocock, an anti-fluoridation campaigner with VOICE, an Irish environmental and consumer group, has been pointing out that fluoride is really a medicine, not a food, and he has challenged the EU Commission on this point.

See EU pharma sector reform must start in Ireland in the Irish Medical News.

Pocock put together the reasons and arguments why fluoride should not have been approved as a nutrient to be added to food supplements. His notes are in the attached Word document (Fluoride Defence).

Another flaw that should invalidate the EFSA's opinion of fluoride as a viable nutrient source is that there apparently has been a contrasting opinion of another EU Committee that should have been taken into account. This was pointed out in email correspondence as follows:

“1. The Authority shall exercise vigilance in order to identify at an early stage any potential source of divergence between its scientific opinions and the scientific opinions issued by other bodies carrying out similar tasks.”

“How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.”